EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION AND NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF SMC IN COMPRESSION MOLDING

Experimental investigation and numerical simulation were performed to study the compression molding of SMC. Laboratory-scaled molds were des igned and built for experimental study of the SMC charges with differe nt colored layers to enable visualization of the flow patterns. Temper ature and flow patterns inside the SMC charge were measured for variou s process parameters such as mold temperature, mold geometry and closi ng speed. A thermo-viscoplastic finite-element program was developed t o simulate compression molding. In the analytical study, the deformati on of the material was modeled using a flow rule taking the fiber dist ribution into account. A kinetic model was adopted to describe the cur e behaviour. The results of analysis and experiment were compared, sho wing good agreements with each other. The experimental findings combin ed with analytical results provided a sound understanding of SMC in co mpression molding.